Aquarius—Water.
“Like water spilt upon the ground,”—alas,
Our little lives flow swiftly on and pass;
Yet may they bring rich harvests and green grass!
Pisces—The Fishes.
Last of the sacred signs, you bring to me
A word of hope, a word of mystery—
We all are swimmers in God’s mighty sea.
The rough expanse of democratic sea
Which parts the lands that live by liberty
Is no division; for their hearts are one.
To fight together till their cause is won.
For land and water let us make our pact,
And seal the solemn word with valiant act:
No continent is firm, no ocean pure,
Until on both the rights of man are sure.
Sign of the Love Divine
That bends to bear the load
Of all who suffer, all who bleed,
Along life’s thorny road:
Sign of the Heart Humane,
That through the darkest fight
Would bring to wounded friend and foe
A ministry of light:
O dear and holy sign,
Lead onward like a star!
The armies of the just are thine,
And all we have and are.
1918
Under the cloud of world-wide war,
While earth is drenched with sorrow,
I have no heart for idle merrymaking,
Or for the fashioning of glad raiment.
I will retrace the divine footmarks,
On the Road of the first Easter.
Down through the valley of utter darkness
Dripping with blood and tears;
Over the hill of the skull, the little hill of great anguish,
The ambuscade of Death.
Into the no-man’s-land of Hades
Bearing despatches of hope to spirits in prison,
Mortally stricken and triumphant
Went the faithful Captain of Salvation.
Then upward, swiftly upward—
Victory, liberty, glory,
The feet that were wounded walked in the tranquil garden,
Bathed in dew and the light of deathless dawn.
O my soul, my comrades, soldiers of freedom,
Follow the pathway of Easter, for there is no other,
Follow it through to peace, yea, follow it fighting.
This Armageddon is not darker than Calvary.
The day will break when the Dragon is vanquished;
He that exalteth himself as God shall be cast down,
And the Lords of war shall fall,
And the long, long terror be ended,
Victory, justice, peace enduring!
They that die in this cause shall live forever,
And they that live shall never die,
They shall rejoice together in the Easter of a new world.
Oh, gallantly they fared forth in khaki and in blue,
America’s crusading host of warriors bold and true;
They battled for the rights of man beside our brave Allies,
And now they’re coming home to us with glory in their eyes.
Oh, it’s home again, and home again, America for me!
Our hearts are turning home again and there we long to be,
In our beautiful big country beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
Our boys have seen the Old World as none have seen before.
They know the grisly horror of the German gods of war:
The noble faith of Britain and the hero-heart of France,
The soul of Belgium’s fortitude and Italy’s romance.
They bore our country’s great word across the rolling sea,
“America swears brotherhood with all the just and free.”
They wrote that word victorious on fields of mortal strife,
And many a valiant lad was proud to seal it with his life.
Oh, welcome home in Heaven’s peace, dear spirits of the dead!
And welcome home ye living sons America hath bred!
The lords of war are beaten down, your glorious task is done;
You fought to make the whole world free, and the victory is won.
Now it’s home again, and home again, our hearts are turning west,
Of all the lands beneath the sun America is best.
We’re going home to our own folks, beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
Ship after ship, and every one with a high-resounding name,
From the robber-nest of Heligoland the German war-fleet came;
Not victory or death they sought, but a rendezvous of shame.
Sing out, sing out,
A joyful shout,
Ye lovers of the sea!
The “Kaiser” and the “Kaiserin,”
The “König” and the “Prinz,”
The potentates of piracy,
Are coming to surrender,
And the ocean shall be free.
They never dared the final fate of battle on the blue;
Their sea-wolves murdered merchantmen and mocked the drowning crew;
They stained the wave with martyr-blood—but we sent our transports through!
What flags are these that dumbly droop from the gaff o’ the mainmast tall?
The black of the Kaiser’s iron cross, the red of the Empire’s fall!
Come down, come down, ye pirate flags. Yea, strike your colors all.
The Union Jack and the Tricolor and the Starry Flag o’ the West
Shall guard the fruit of Freedom’s war and the victory confest,
The flags of the brave and just and free shall rule on the ocean’s breast.
Sing out, sing out,
A mighty shout,
Ye lovers of the sea!
The “Kaiser” and the “Kaiserin,”
The “König” and the “Prinz,”
The robber-lords of death and sin,
Have come to their surrender,
And the ocean shall be free!
I
It was my lot of late to travel far
Through all America’s domain,
A willing, gray-haired servitor
Bearing the Fiery Cross of righteous war.
And everywhere, on mountain, vale and plain,
In crowded street and lonely cottage door,
I saw the symbol of the bright blue star.
Millions of stars! Rejoice, dear land, rejoice
That God hath made thee great enough to give
Beneath thy starry flag unfurled
A gift to all the world—
Thy living sons that Liberty might live.
II
It seems but yesterday they sallied forth
Boys of the east, the west, the south, the north,
High-hearted, keen, with laughter and with song,
Fearless of lurking danger on the sea,
Eager to fight in Flanders or in France
Against the monstrous German wrong,
And sure of victory!
Brothers in soul with British and with French
They held their ground in many a bloody trench;
And when the swift word came—
Advance!
Over the top they went through waves
